Oman to skip Algeria oil producers meeting

Oman will not participate in a meeting of oil producers and consumers in Algeria next month as it is disappointed by the group’s failure to address the issue of low oil prices, Minister of Oil and Gas Mohammad bin Hamad al-Rumhy said.

The International Energy Forum, which groups producers and consumers, is due to meet on Sept. 26-28 in Algiers. Qatar said on Monday that Opec members had agreed to hold talks on the sidelines.

Oman, a non-Opec oil producer, doesn’t “see the point of continuing to be part” of the group, Rumhy told Reuters in an interview in Muscat.

“We are moving into difficult times, and others still believe that everything will be fine. Those who expected the expensive oil producers will be run out of the business and shut down their operations, have been proved wrong.”

Rumhy added: “There were hopes of seeing the impact of fewer investments in oil and gas, and less exploration, on supply and demand with hopes that this might affect the low oil prices. But that didn’t happen, and there has been no positive impact on oil prices.”

As a result, he said, producers would have to tighten their belts further or find some way to prop up prices by revisiting the idea of freezing production. Oman has reduced state spending as it grapples with a big budget deficit caused by cheap oil.